Just another WordPress.com weblog

Category Archives: writer’s life

Got to Work

I was able to work today. The company that Life has allowed me to work for is vast.

Meaningful Digression about Writing and Editing

Unlike when I write and edit from home – which I am still willing to do, by the way, in the English language, I had a work colleague with me. In truth, I have had one case of having a junior work colleague with me ‘in person’. I have also worked with other people who were also working online.

Working as a professional writer and editor from home, the perception of who one’s work colleagues really are becomes bizarre. One may write something and mail it to someone. If a magazine, or newspaper or other customer buys it then the editorial staff have become work colleagues by becoming paying customers. Compared to many other jobs it is weird.

Back to main topic

The company I did work for let me have a uniform. Work uniforms: some of you have worn them. To some of you they are a sign of a lame work life. For others, they are a token of status – of having a job. I may not even be the only one who was able to view the thing much like a ‘team jersey’.

They told me to not wear the thing around too much.

Transformation

Transformation is what happens to that caterpillar that emerges as a butterfly. Transformation is what happens to some people if they go from having ‘not found God’ to ‘finding God’ or ‘getting a spiritual teacher’. Some find that their children transform from puberty. This can happen to people in both good and bad ways.

A lot of the time, the change is relatively minor. Maybe that’s not really true. I mean, when an actor or actress goes into character the transformation is not minor. For ….this is really me just guessing, 50% of workers going into the job is a lot like going on stage. One does not have to be entirely false but many are also not feeling ‘free to be themselves’. Those of you who ‘get it’, can see why the simple action that I will describe below is a transformation.

All I did was don the work uniform. Today, what made it most amusing or unusual was that I did it in a cubicle at a bank. The reason was that I wanted to arrive on time ready for work. I went to the bank as an ordinary customer. That was myself as ‘a private person’ rather than as ‘part of a gigantic global corporation’. LOL, but I am glad that I am not part of the Borg now….blogging as Borg….but wow, it is a big company and I am connecting with you through weird technology rather than old and ‘in person’ ways.

Another meaningful digression

Who are we kidding? I wrote both professionally and as an amateur in this language – in this case the point is not about criticizing my abilities but rather to point out that most professional writers work at a distance. I had to be told to try working more locally. My record longest distance contracts at this point were the ones from Kuwait to Indianapolis, and the ones from Singapore and India. I did not do that many of those, but yes.

Back to Transformation

So anyway, I put on the uniform and felt ‘ta da’ transformed. In truth, I did not feel like I had suddenly turned into someone else. Thank God, actually. One might expect that from psychosis or abusive trauma or strong doses of psychedelic drugs or ‘intense meditation’ ….it wasn’t anything like that.

The subjective sensation was so real, and yet so simple. We all know one way or another how it is to be part of something greater than ourselves but how that is, can be funny or profound.

I took the thing off again after work. The actual work was nothing to be ashamed of nor proud of. The work was not in any of the fields in which I have some kind of personal passion. I also did not hate it. My emotion about it was similar to how I feel when I do house work that needs doing except for a small pleasure knowing that I had some ‘social status improvement from working for pay’ and that I would be paid. My work colleague did not bother me and I was happy to have a colleague right there with me and that we worked as a close team. It was a pleasure I experienced in contrast to the type of pleasure I get from writing something up and just emailing it to the customer/client/boss who reviews it and then sends me an email about whether or not that is okay.

After post notes

Yesterday, I became excited because I read that more than 100 people began to follow the blog. This is even though there are no ‘beefcake images’ and ‘no visible boobs’. Somehow I feel almost proud of you for that. In all seriousness, if any of you have a nice little story about feeling transformed please drop them in the comments.

‘Real engagement’ is always great, and if you do enough you can raise my awareness of many of you ‘as real people who are actually there’.

Recently, I was stunned when a man I knew personally read some of my blog. Our relationship still hasn’t ‘recovered’ despite my belief that it is good that someone read my blog who I also interacted with in person. If that seems weird, go back to the paragraph about writers.

Meaningful Activity

In general people feel better when their lives feel meaningful and there is enough pleasure and health in their lives.

According to some researchers, maturation often continues in adulthood and middle aged and those in their 60s usually achieve ‘generative maturity’. At this point, they begin thinking about how to help others in the world. There are people who are already like this as children – some manage to do great things on a large scale. Others can’t and may feel stifled or frustrated but once they ‘unlearn learned helplessness’ – which sometimes requires reaching adulthood, they find they can do more and go ahead and do so.

More than once, successful people suffering from bad mental or emotional conditions despite their success have found great relief in devoting some of their time to helping others.

Taking good care of one’s self and experiencing healthy self – love, which is not to be confused with Malignant Narcisissm should not be left out of the whole process of being kind to others.

Formal & Informal

There are formal and informal ways that people can help others. There are leaders who can found organizations, and get things done. There are leaders who are also followers – such people may join an organization that already exists and serve that, and grow through activities they do within the organization.

There is no disgrace in being a follower unless one is really ‘cut out’ to be a leader, which can really happen. For naturally occurring or potentially excellent leaders, being kept as ‘followers only’ is a bit like hiding the Sunshine with a man made item and thinking that means the light isn’t there. Most folks start out as followers. Everyone needs and deserves trustworthy guidance. As a beginner, there is no shame in being a follower. Joining an organization already created by others is a great way for team oriented individuals to get involved as followers and grow from there. Some will grow into leadership positions. For others it will be doing volunteer work or getting paid working for a charity organization that will be ‘a significant change from engaging in activities that are limited to helping one’s self.’

Some people have a strong preference for one or the other. There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

The problems I see with those who prefer informal ways of helping others:

Harder to get the helping activity acknowledged in formal and official ways for example in college essays, job applications, beauty pageant applications.

Mixed motives – one’s own motives may not always be clear.

Inconsistent results. People may find that they are only effective some of the time.

Difficulty developing leaders – it may be difficult or impossible to improve certain skills and to aid developing leaders without the structure of a formal organization.

The problems with formal ways of helping others:

It can be impersonal. For example – filling out forms in an agency may not be heartwarming the way interacting with the very individuals receiving help might be.

It can be harder to help the way one wants to. With formal helping one normally joins and organization and can only choose from the options available.

Corruption – one can discover that the organization one is working for has become corrupt and does not provide as much care as was originally intended.

This post may contain nonsequiters and other signs of being a stream of consciousness relationship with context than a carefully structured advertisement for an attractive new urban crime novel.

The novel shown on the left can be purchased directly using http://sbpra.com/miriampia/ . Not only did I write it and edit it at least 7 times, but it is finally for sale in a respectable form. I have touched it and can confirm that if you buy it I know what you will be getting. I am actually quite proud of it, as it is my first published novel. I wrote it after working as a professional writer for a while, mostly as a ghostwriter working from home while living in the same big city that the novel is set in: Indianapolis.

Everyone who lives or has visited Indianapolis that not everyone there has the same color skin. This doesn’t need to be a problem but some – and luckily only some, of the people who live there make a drama of a small matter like that. There are characters of more than one so-called “race” in the story. Which ones shows what it was really like there when the story was written and is not intended to insult those not represented in the story. Unlike too many stories prior to 1970, there are both good guys and bad guys of more than one color rather than color coding the good guys and bad guys.

Meanwhile, I have tried multiple times to get the blog out without the “shame” of showing that there is a domain name problem. What really happened is that I renewed but the system acted as if I had not. Then, what happened was that I got a new domain name and have asked that my blog be changed over to the new domain. I have requested this assistance at least 3 times but it did not come through for me. I am hoping that now it finally will.